What Was Lost - vet Darkshade quest utterly broken since at least 2 months

Hemaka · June 2016

I've already submitted countless bug reports with plenty of details on this one and even got a reply from customer support (long time ago) basically saying "we're working on this". After at least 4-5 incremental patches (and one big dlc patch) it's still completely broken. It's the story quest that awards 1 skill point in veteran version of the dungeon.

What exactly is bugged you ask? Well... almost everything. I've tried this many, many times and here's what I've found:
- dark elf npc won't rise from the ground after the first boss (big kwama) and you can't talk to her => progress blocked, can't complete quest
- argonian npc runs off somewhere and disappears after her dialogue just before the netch boss => progress blocked, can't complete quest
- argonian npc disappears after the netch boss fight => quest objective stuck at "find dwarven engine", progress blocked, can't complete quest
- both npcs (dunmer & argonian) disappear after netch boss fight => progress blocked, can't complete quest
- argonian npc disappears after killing final boss => quest objective stuck at "return to <argonian_npc_name>", progress blocked, can't get a reward (skill point)

Few notes:
- I'm not skipping any part of the dungeon (especially monsters before the netch boss fight or the 3 alit minibosses) and all bugs listed above still happen
- I know that, for example, after final fight the argonian npc should be outside the boss room - she's not there, nor anywhere in a dungeon (and I checked it thoroughly)
- sometimes one of the "lost" npcs reappear after entering/leaving final boss room, but then quest just stucks on another objective (and it doesn't work when argonian npc gets lost after killing final boss)
- leaving dungeon, relogging, /reloadui or restarting game do not fix anything

So here it is. Few of my guildies also have this problem so it's propably nothing on my end.
I'm trying to complete this quest since 2 months and it still doesn't work. Since I sadly can't see ZOS doing anything about that, I decided to post here - maybe someone will answer.

Thanks for reading.

Brodda · June 2016

I've had the same problem. I have abandoned and picked up this quest at least four times on my new char and it bugged on all occasions ... until yesterday.

Yesterday when I was doing the veteran Darkshade for the gold pledge, I managed to complete the quest. I had a group of considerate players, who put up with me waiting all the time for the quest npc's to catch up. We didn't do any shortcuts and killed all the bosses.

I have noticed that I had to speak with the quest npc's just before the trio boss, as they were looking at the cavern with the netch boss below. I have never done that before (on this char, that I remember), so it might be the key step I was missing and that caused the bugged behavior.

All in all, quest complete, skill point gained, happy camper.

Amiliana · June 2016

I haven't even been in veteran Darkshade Caverns since I picked up the quest that first time, but I was doing Gold Pledge in there yesterday and everything worked just fine. I got my quest done and my preciousss skillpoint!

wayfarerx · June 2016

Hemaka wrote: »

- argonian npc disappears after the netch boss fight => quest objective stuck at "find dwarven engine", progress blocked, can't complete quest

Myself and another guildie got this one last night, very annoying.

Hemaka · June 2016

Brodda wrote: »

I've had the same problem. I have abandoned and picked up this quest at least four times on my new char and it bugged on all occasions ... until yesterday.

Yesterday when I was doing the veteran Darkshade for the gold pledge, I managed to complete the quest. I had a group of considerate players, who put up with me waiting all the time for the quest npc's to catch up. We didn't do any shortcuts and killed all the bosses.

I have noticed that I had to speak with the quest npc's just before the trio boss, as they were looking at the cavern with the netch boss below. I have never done that before (on this char, that I remember), so it might be the key step I was missing and that caused the bugged behavior.

All in all, quest complete, skill point gained, happy camper.

Good for you

I've been there yesterday too - as it was a gold pledge - and we've been doing everything slowly, just as your group (I know about the speaking part before 3 alits). But of course I still couldn't complete the quest - it got bugged at the netch boss (stuck at "find dwarven engine" objective). So I guess it's still pure luck.

pretzl · June 2016

I know this quest has been bugged since the very inception of ESO. For some reason, it seems almost random and not tied to any part of the quest anymore like previously.
What I've noticed is that if you follow the quest slowly and do each piece, it's less likely to bug. However, I've found that when you're at Grobull (netch boss), the quest NPC that lies dying where Grobull spawns seems to disappear fairly often. Running to kill the big dwemer automaton up the hill then running back usually fixes it for me, but nothing is certain in that shithole. Either way, @ZOS_Finn is this part of your department? It'd be nice if it was fixed for once. Volenfell likes to bug too, FYI, in many of the same ways.

Daishichi · July 2016

Ran Darkshade twice last night, can't get past a search circle displayed where Grobull the netch dies saying "Find the Engine". I have had the quest stall out at the later "Exit the Engine Room" task as well. Gonna try again since it's still today's pledge...maybe my group will be willing to slow it down and kill everything, as that sounds like the thing to do.